Valve’s very own Dota 2 tournament series, The International, is prominent due to having the biggest prize pool in all fields of esport. Since the crowdfunding was first introduced in 2013 for TI3, the tournament annually holds the record of having the largest prize pot in esports history until last year.
The International 6 had an initial $1,600,000 of prize pool but due to compendium release, the community raised $19,170,460 which sums up a massive total of $20,770,460. Every year since 2013, the community aims to break its own record by generating a larger amount of money which is used as the prize pot for The International. But will the community break last year’s record again this time?
51 days, TI7 is 11.94% ahead of TI6
After 51 days, TI6 had a total of roughly $16.9 million while TI7 have $18.8 million. Fifty days to go and there’s only $1,738,087 remaining to beat last year’s record; which means the community needs to generate $34,972 per day to achieve the goal. Is it possible?
Looking at the graph below, TI7’s prize pot took a big leap just few days. At a certain point, TI7 prize pool was around $400,000 behind that of TI6’s; but thanks to 70% weekend discount, it managed to recover pretty quick.
Dota 2 commentator says the game is rapidly approaching to its “breaking point” and one of the reasons he cited involves this whole crowdfunding idea, as discussed in a previous article which can be found here. Valve is obviously taking measures to keep the prize pool going like releasing a multiplayer campaign; but that won’t deny the fact that The International, at some point, has to stop breaking its own record. Has that time come? Will TI7 Break TI6 Prize Pool?
